Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia in Peru, counting down to Wednesday’s Olympics vote

With seven events expected locally, Mayor Garcia is part of the Los Angeles delegation to Peru for the official 2028 Games vote

By
Mike Guardabascio, Press-Telegram

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Soon, Southern California and the world will get official word on the Games of the 2028 Long Beach Olympics.

Oops. Correction: Make that the Los Angeles Olympics.

But Long Beach is certainly expected to play a major role in the games. So much so that Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia is in Peru this week — as part of the Los Angeles delegation — for the long-awaited official International Olympic Committee vote on the venues for the 2024 and 2028 Games.

It’s been widely — very widely — reported that Paris will land the 2024 bid and Los Angeles will snag the 2028 bid, with Long Beach hosting seven Olympic events in and around a downtown sports park.

There have been no indications that the IOC is planning on deviating from that plan, but Garcia said that doesn’t mean his L.A. team is treating the event as a formality.

“We expect that we’ll be awarded the 2028 Games, but it’s not over till it’s over,” said Garcia. “It’s important that we are as organized and excited and ready as any Olympic bid at this point in the process. I had a chance to see the presentation we’ll be making and it’s spectacular — we’re making the presentation we would have made, regardless.”

Garcia is no stranger to Peru — he immigrated to the U.S. from Lima at age 5 but was raised in Southern California.

After the formal presentations are concluded, the official IOC vote will take place at around 11 a.m. local time.

When LA 2028 becomes official, Long Beach stands to host:

• Men’s and women’s water polo;

• Sailing;

• Team handball;

• BMX biking;

• Open-water swimming;

• And the triathlon.

Typically, the IOC votes on the venue for an Olympics seven years ahead. But because both Paris and Los Angeles’ bids were so strong, they are expected to break from tradition and award the 2028 bid 11 years prior. That means there will be additional time for planning and, potentially, some changes as well.

“As I’ve been saying since Day One, we would welcome every opportunity to host more events,” said Garcia. “People in the city should be very proud that we’re ready to host this kind of event.”

Long Beach’s role represents a significant Olympic footprint — larger than the scope of the city’s involvement in 1932 and 1984, Southern California’s previous Olympic endeavors. During those years:

• In 1932, the city hosted rowing, with the brand-new Marine Stadium constructed for the games.

The Long Beach Traffic Circle was also constructed in 1930 to accommodate traffic for the Olympics — and the Arena and Convention Center were upgraded before the ’84 Games. So it’s not a surprise that Garcia vows that the 2028 Games will likley inspire an infrastructure revitalization to the city.

“We had to invest in Belmont Pier whether the Olympics are coming or not,” he said. “Now we have a chance to bring a team in to look at our infrastructure and do something special for the city.”

With the backing of the IOC and the 2028 committee, those upgrades will now have additional money behind them that doesn’t come from the city’s budget.

The mayor’s trip, which was funded by the 2028 committee and not the city’s budget, has given him an opportunity to spend more time with the 2028 organizers and Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti, planning ways to improve things.

“We’re going to enter into a partnership with LA 2028 that will be focused on youth sports,” said Garcia. “The water polo players we’ll see in 2028 are young kids, many of them still in elementary school. There’s a lot of opportunity here to really build a movement.”

Garcia said he wants to form a committee of local Olympians and experts to help take a long-term view on the next decade of preparation.

“We’re already hosting more sporting events than we’ve had in the previous two Olympics,” said Garcia. “It’s our most successful bid in the history of the city — it says a lot about our city and the people in our community. It’s an exciting time.”